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Steinwerth P, Bertrand J, Sandt V, Marchal S, Sahana J, Bollmann M, Schulz H, Kopp S, Grimm D, Wehland M. Structural and Molecular Changes of Human Chondrocytes Exposed to the Rotating Wall Vessel Bioreactor. Biomolecules 2023; 14:25. [PMID: 38254625 PMCID: PMC10813504 DOI: 10.3390/biom14010025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Over the last 30 years, the prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA), a disease characterized by a loss of articular cartilage, has more than doubled worldwide. Patients suffer from pain and progressive loss of joint function. Cartilage is an avascular tissue mostly consisting of extracellular matrix with embedded chondrocytes. As such, it does not regenerate naturally, which makes an early onset of OA prevention and treatment a necessity to sustain the patients' quality of life. In recent years, tissue engineering strategies for the regeneration of cartilage lesions have gained more and more momentum. In this study, we aimed to investigate the scaffold-free 3D cartilage tissue formation under simulated microgravity in the NASA-developed rotating wall vessel (RWV) bioreactor. For this purpose, we cultured both primary human chondrocytes as well as cells from the immortalized line C28/I2 for up to 14 days on the RWV and analyzed tissue morphology, development of apoptosis, and expression of cartilage-specific proteins and genes by histological staining, TUNEL-assays, immunohistochemical detection of collagen species, and quantitative real-time PCR, respectively. We observed spheroid formation in both cell types starting on day 3. After 14 days, constructs from C28/I2 cells had diameters of up to 5 mm, while primary chondrocyte spheroids were slightly smaller with 3 mm. Further inspection of the 14-day-old C28/I2 spheroids revealed a characteristic cartilage morphology with collagen-type 1, -type 2, and -type 10 positivity. Interestingly, these tissues were less susceptible to RWV-induced differential gene expression than those formed from primary chondrocytes, which showed significant changes in the regulation of IL6, ACTB, TUBB, VIM, COL1A1, COL10A1, MMP1, MMP3, MMP13, ITGB1, LAMA1, RUNX3, SOX9, and CASP3 gene expression. These diverging findings might reflect the differences between primary and immortalized cells. Taken together, this study shows that simulated microgravity using the RWV bioreactor is suitable to engineer dense 3D cartilage-like tissue without addition of scaffolds or any other artificial materials. Both primary articular cells and the stable chondrocyte cell line C28/I2 formed 3D neocartilage when exposed for 14 days to an RWV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Steinwerth
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; (P.S.); (V.S.); (S.M.); (H.S.); (M.W.)
| | - Jessica Bertrand
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany; (J.B.); (M.B.)
- Research Group “Magdeburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung unter Raumfahrt-und Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen” (MARS), Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany;
| | - Viviann Sandt
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; (P.S.); (V.S.); (S.M.); (H.S.); (M.W.)
| | - Shannon Marchal
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; (P.S.); (V.S.); (S.M.); (H.S.); (M.W.)
| | - Jayashree Sahana
- Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Ole Worms Allé 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark;
| | - Miriam Bollmann
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany; (J.B.); (M.B.)
| | - Herbert Schulz
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; (P.S.); (V.S.); (S.M.); (H.S.); (M.W.)
- Research Group “Magdeburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung unter Raumfahrt-und Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen” (MARS), Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany;
| | - Sascha Kopp
- Research Group “Magdeburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung unter Raumfahrt-und Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen” (MARS), Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany;
- Core Facility Tissue Engineering, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Daniela Grimm
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; (P.S.); (V.S.); (S.M.); (H.S.); (M.W.)
- Research Group “Magdeburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung unter Raumfahrt-und Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen” (MARS), Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany;
- Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Ole Worms Allé 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark;
| | - Markus Wehland
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; (P.S.); (V.S.); (S.M.); (H.S.); (M.W.)
- Research Group “Magdeburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung unter Raumfahrt-und Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen” (MARS), Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany;
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